'West Side Story' live: One hand, one heart, many players

Natalie Wood as Maria in the 1961 musical âWest Side Story.â The New York Philharmonic will play the instrumental music within the film version of the musical

Wish you could hear Rita Moreno perform “West Side Story” with a live orchestra?

The New York Philharmonic has the closest option this week, as the orchestra will play the instrumental music within the 1961 film version of the musical — alongside a high-definition, newly remastered showing of the movie on a big screen.

“There’s nothing like it that I can think of where the music is such a part of the narrative structure of the piece,” says conductor David Newman.

Newman comes to the unusual conducting gig with the experience of having scored nearly 100 feature films. His credits include the Academy Award-nominated “Anastasia,” “Hoffa” and “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

He is a longtime fan of Leonard Bernstein’s musical, which is being performed to commemorate the film’s 50th anniversary. Newman, a Los Angeles native, first played rehearsal piano for his high school production of the show and later conducted a summer stock production.

“There are things in the story that seem anachronistic to us now,” he says. “But the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ story and the music are timeless.”

Winner of 10 Academy Awards, the famous film chronicles the love between Tony and Maria, who are on opposite sides of a gang rivalry between the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks in 1950s Manhattan.

Among its many memorable songs are “Tonight,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Maria,” “America” and “Somewhere.”

With lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents and choreography by Jerome Robbins, the cast also includes Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblin, George Chakiris and David Winters. (Natalie Wood and Beymer had other performers sing their music.)

“Because of all the choreography and how well known the music is, synchronization is the primary concern,” Newman says.

While Newman has conducted music with film clips before and “West Side Story” is the first full-length mainstream movie he has led, he says that “Casablanca” and “Psycho” have received the same treatment. And, although it is difficult to find films that have enough music that the orchestra doesn’t have overly long pauses, there are a few others that Newman wouldn’t mind taking on in the future.

“Two movies that I think have fabulous scores are ‘Spartacus’ and of all things the original ‘Planet of the Apes’ — the movie’s not the greatest in the world but it’s fun and I think it would be great to do,” he says.

MGM HD Presents West Side Story
Where: Avery Fisher Hall, Broadway and 66th Street, New York.
When: Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
How much: Sold out. Call (212) 875-5656 or visit nyphil.org.